Curtius' exhibition was so successful it became patronised by the French royal family. It was not long before Marie's talent became apparent and she was invited to the royal court to assist in the artistic education of King Louis XVI's sister, Madame Elizabeth.
      Life at Versailles was in vivid contrast to Marie's previous existence. It lasted only nine years, ending abruptly just before the discontent in France spilled over into violent and bloody revolution. In 1789 Dr Curtius called Mane back to Paris.
Above: The Grand Hall, circa 1845.       The capital became a centre of chaotic activity: no one was safe, and at one time both Marie and her mother were imprisoned, sharing a cell with Josephine de Beauharnais, who later became the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. They came terrifyingly close to death, even having their hair cropped in preparation for a meeting with 'Madame la Guillotine'.

      Before long, Marie was asked to prepare the death masks of many of her former employers after they had been executed by the guillotine - among them Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Another of her famous studies of the time portrays Jean Paul Marat, the philosopher and revolutionary who was stabbed to death, while taking a bath, by the royalist Charlotte Corday. This portrait, along with

many others modelled by Marie, is still on display today.
      Eventually Maximilien Robespierre's Reign of Terror came to an end.
      In 1794, Curtius died and Marie inherited the business which had grown under her influence. In the following year she married a French engineer, Francois Tussaud, and by 1800 had given birth to three children: a daughter, who died, and two sons.
      France was still suffering enormous deprivation and Marie's exhibition was struggling to survive. In 1802 Marie Tussaud made a monumental decision. She would leave her husband and baby son, Francis, in Paris, while she and her elder son, Joseph ('Nini'), would tour the exhibition round the British Isles.
      Marie was to see neither France nor her husband again. She spent the next 33 years travelling the length and breadth of the British Isles, exhibiting her growing collection of figures to crowds of curious and intrigued spectators. 'Nini' accompanied her, taking a keen interest in the craft of making wax figures. During this time Francis had been looked after by Madame Tussaud's mother in France. When, in 1826, Madame Grosholtz died, Francis joined his mother and brother on the road in Britain.
      Madame Tussaud's has survived its fair share of disaster over the years. In 1822 a ship carrying the exhibition to Ireland was wrecked; fortunately, however, most of the figures were saved.